The southern Nicoya Peninsula

Most visitors’ first sight of the southern Nicoya Peninsula is from the soothing, slow-paced ferry from Puntarenas: you’ll see its low brown hills rising up in the distance, ringed by a rugged coastline and pockets of intense jungly green. Much of the region, though, has been cleared for farming or cattle grazing, or, in the case of the surf towns on its far southwestern tip, given over to tourism.

The area’s main town is Cóbano, a dull transport hub with a petrol station, a post office and a Banco Nacional with an ATM, a rare convenience in these parts. Most tourists pass straight through on their way to the thriving coastal towns of Mal País, Santa Teresa or Montezuma, one of Costa Rica’s most popular beach hangouts. The partly paved road to Montezuma, lined by acres of cattle pasture, offers a startling – and disconcerting – vision of the future of the deforested tropics. Once covered with dense primary Pacific lowland forest, today only stumps dot the fields. Still, heroic efforts are being made by local conservationists to create a biological corridor throughout the peninsula, with the wildlife refuges of Reserva Karen Mogensen and Curú proving that nature can – and is – making a comeback. For details of ferries to and from the southern Nicoya Peninsula.

Explore

Find out more

Refugio de Vida Silvestre Reserva Karen Mogensen

The wildlife-rich REFUGIO DE VIDA SILVESTRE RESERVA KAREN MOGENSEN, 20km southwest of Playa Naranjo, offers the most rewarding ecotourism experience on the southern Nicoya Peninsula. This nine-square-kilometre patch of primary and secondary dry-humid tropical forest functions as both a private reserve and tourist lodge and has become the most crucial link in an expanding biological corridor that runs between the Reserva Natural Absoluta Cabo Blanco, 85km south at the end of the peninsula, and Parque Nacional Barra Honda, 50km north in Guanacaste. Named after the late Karen Mogensen, the Danish conservationist who was instrumental in creating Cabo Blanco, the reserve was established in 1996 by the local not-for-profit ASEPALECO (t 2650-0607, w http://www.asepaleco.com) – a name that references the peninsula’s three main towns, Paquerea, Lepanto and Cóbano.

Fence removal, tree planting and natural regeneration has returned this former patch of farmland into a fully functioning jungle ecosystem. Endangered plant species such as rónrón, mahogany, teak and ebony grow in the reserve, while white-faced and howler monkeys abound, and deer roam the forest, preyed on by elusive pumas. More than 240 species of birds have been spotted, including great curassows, motmots, long-tailed manakins, spectacled owls and three-wattled bellbirds.

Five kilometres of well-maintained hiking trails run through the reserve, leading to lookouts with jaw-dropping views of the Gulf of Nicoya as well as to one of the most breathtaking waterfalls in the country – the 18m Catarata Velo de Novia (Bridal Veil Falls), which cascades down a rounded cliffside before dropping to a deep, turquoise swimming hole.

Montezuma

The popular beach resort of MONTEZUMA lies about 40km southwest of Paquera, near the southern tip of the Nicoya Peninsula. Some three decades ago, a handful of foreigners seeking solitude fell in love with Montezuma and decided to stay. In those days, it was just a sleepy fishing village, largely cut off from the rest of the country, but today Montezuma draws tourists galore, and virtually every establishment in town offers gringo-friendly food and accommodation and sells tours. Nevertheless, it still feels like a village because large-scale development has been kept to a minimum – and it’s still a bit of an effort to get here.

Montezuma and the area south to the Reserva Absoluta Cabo Blanco features some of Costa Rica’s loveliest coastline: leaning palms and jutting rocks dot the white-sand beaches. Here you can enjoy uninterrupted views of the Pacific, especially arresting when the occasional lightning storm illuminates the horizon and silky waters. Inland, thickly forested hills, including rare Pacific lowland tropical forest, dominate the landscape.